| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Debate over Slavery: Antislavery and Proslavery Liberalism in Antebellum America. By David F. Ericson. (New York: New York University Press, 2000. x, 241 pp. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8147-2212-1. Paper, $19.00, ISBN 0-8147-2213-X.)

David F. Ericson's The Debate over Slavery defends Louis Hartz's contention in The Liberal Tradition in America (1955) that American political development occurred in a liberal context. Yet, whereas Hartz conceded that proslavery theorists operated outside an otherwise liberal tradition, Ericson argues that they remained within that tradition. He does so to show that even the most apparently illiberal political theorists used primarily liberal arguments to defend slavery, thus strengthening the case for the liberal consensus thesis. Ericson rejects alternatives—including nationalism, racism, and sexism—as primary explanations for the nation's political evolution. . . .

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